Veteran journalist Paul Bauman, based in Sacramento, covers all levels of Northern California tennis. Contact him at norcaltennisczar@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @norcaltenczar.

Monday, September 23, 2013

No. 7 seed Johnson falls in Napa Challenger

Seventh-seeded Steve Johnson lost to Michael Venus of New
Zealand in the first round of the Napa Valley Challenger.
Photo by Paul Bauman

Michael Venus of New Zealand upset seventh-seeded Steve Johnson of Orange, Calif., 7-6 (4), 6-4 today in the first round of the $50,000 Napa Valley Challenger at the Napa Valley Country Club.
Johnson, who won two NCAA singles and four team titles at USC from 2009 to 2012, had beaten Venus 6-1, 6-4 in the second round of the $50,000 Winnetka (Ill.) Challenger in July in their only previous meeting.
Venus, a 25-year-old former LSU All-American, will meet the winner of Tuesday's match between Robby Ginepri of Kennesaw, Ga., and Nicolas Barrientos of Colombia.
Ginepri, 30, is the only active U.S. man to have reached a Grand Slam singles semifinal, losing to Andre Agassi in five sets in 2005.
Ginepri, who climbed to a career-high No. 15 in the world in 2006, has plunged to No. 229. The right-hander broke his left elbow in September 2010 when he fell off his bicycle trying to avoid a squirrel and missed 10 months.
The top three seeds in the Napa Valley Challenger -- Americans Denis Kudla, Tim Smyczek and Rhyne Williams, respectively -- won easily in the first round. Williams dispatched Collin Altamirano, a 17-year-old wild card from Elk Grove in the Sacramento area, 6-2, 6-2.
In the final round of qualifying, former Sacramento State star Kiryl Harbatsiuk lost to third-seeded Jesse Witten of Naples, Fla., 6-4, 6-1. Witten avenged a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 loss to Harbatsiuk, a native of Minsk, Belarus, living in Sacramento, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the final round of qualifying in the 2010 Tiburon Challenger.
Here are links to the Napa singles, doubles and qualifying draws and Tuesday's schedule:http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/singles_draw265.PDFhttp://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/doubles_draw288.PDFhttp://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/qualifying_draw285.PDFhttp://assets.usta.com/assets/1/15/schedule288.PDF

About Me

Paul Bauman has 36 years of professional newspaper experience, including the past 15 at his hometown Sacramento Bee. He has covered hundreds of pro tennis tournaments, including Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the Australian Open, the Davis Cup, the Fed Cup and the Japan Open. Bauman has earned numerous awards and was nominated for the inaugural class of the Sacramento Tennis Hall of Fame in 2009. He wrote “Agassi & Ecstasy,” a biography of Andre Agassi published in 1997, while working at the Las Vegas Review-Journal in Agassi's hometown and was named the 1986 Nevada Sportswriter of the Year during a stint at the Reno Gazette-Journal. Bauman served as the editor of the ATP newspaper in the Dallas area in 1982-83 and graduated from Stanford University in 1977.